closing night
daydreams and nightmares

monday 24th March, 7pm
100 mins, Cinema 2, ACMI

This session is Unclassified 15+.

The Melbourne Women in Film Festival is proud to showcase the work of women and gender diverse filmmakers and storytellers. This means that we sometimes include films or panel topics that may explore difficult subjects and be confronting for some audiences. Our aim is to ensure our audience has a safe and enjoyable experience when coming along to our festival and so we have included content warnings, classification and cultural information throughout the program.

Please take the time to read the film synopses below to determine whether the session is suitable for you.

Celebrate the closing night of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival with an out of this world selection of short films from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand's emerging creative talent. Daydreams and Nightmares embraces the surreal, revels in the sinister, and frolics in the bizarre. These short tales will take you on a visual odyssey that will challenge your perception.

  • flaccid

    World Premiere

    Flaccid is an evocative cine-essay that dissects the brittle architecture of patriarchy, unearthing both its hidden frailties and the enduring strength of the feminine force it seeks to contain. Through the mythic lens of Lilith, the film traverses the shadowed corridors of history, where patriarchal dominance has gone unchallenged across time and culture. By tracing the legacies of archetypal men‚ Adam, Genghis Khan, Henry VIII, and Napoleon‚ the film questions the enduring power of this ancient system and asks: what if the patriarchy surrendered its rigid hold?

    Australia, 2025, 13 minutes
    English
    Director: Theresa Angela
    Writer: Theresa Angela, Steph Cicco, Aicee Ignacio
    Producer: Finn Baptie

  • Amalgamate

    Australian Premiere

    A young Māori infiltrates a new political party gaining fast traction. He aims to reveal their true motives and show the country who they’re actually voting for. When he discovers concerning experiments targeting Māori, things begin to escalate impacting not only his people but his own whānau.

    Aotearoa NZ, 2022, 11 minutes
    English
    Director: Holly Groves
    Writer: Holly Groves
    Producer: Paris Coulson

  • Void

    Victorian Premiere

    Content warning: contains themes relating to domestic violence.

    Void portrays the turmoil and emotional journey of a child living in a domestic violence household. Using visual metaphor to represent the parent's troubled relationship, the film transforms the abstract concept of child trauma into a tangible visual experience.

    Australia, 2024, 2 minutes
    English
    Director: Waroonrat Thanaboonsrikoon

  • Crescendo

    Content warning: depictions of violence, blood.

    Caught between relentless expectations of perfection and her artistic desires, a young virtuoso pianist must choose to either uphold or shatter her family’s formidable musical legacy.

    Aotearoa NZ, 2024, 7 minutes
    English
    Director: Faith Concepcion Cruz
    Writer: Faith Concepcion Cruz
    Producer: Faith Concepcion Cruz, Tayla Sutton

  • When Wavefronts Collide

    World Premiere

    A grieving geologist begins to unravel when she discovers her estranged, newly spiritual mother conducting an intimate seance with a handsome young medium.

    Australia, 2024, 15 minutes
    English
    Director: Siobhan Mulready
    Writer: Siobhan Mulready
    Producer: Siobhan Mulready, Brad Francis, Felix Orion

  • A Poetic Struggle

    Australian Premiere

    A Poetic Struggle is an immersive gallery-based animation exploring censorship's impact, focusing on self-censorship and self-exile dynamics. The creator confronts suppression, celebrating art's liberating power and inspiring resistance against censorship.

    Australia, 2023, 5 minutes
    Farsi/Persian, English subtitles
    Director/Artist: Shirin Shakhesi
    Writer: Shirin Shakhesi
    Narrator: Shirin Shakhesi

  • Clown

    Eight-year-old Sami can't wait to play “serial killers” with her older sister Jiya, but her sister-time is threatened when Jiya's cool new bestie arrives.

    Australia, 2023, 10 minutes
    English, Hindi
    Director: Aarushi Chowdhury
    Writer: Aarushi Chowdhury, Diane Vu
    Producer: Adrian Ortega

  • Blood Sisters

    Content Warning: Visual depictions of blood

    Summer is invited to a sleepover with a new group of friends, but when their makeover starts to take a dark turn, Summer is tested just how far she will go to fit in.

    Australia, 2024, 12 minutes
    English
    Director: Muraya Moore
    Writer: Muraya Moore
    Producer: London Hawke, Taylah Cate

  • The Meaningless Daydreams of Augie and Celeste

    Two best friends embark on a high-stakes game of imagination, which takes a twisted turn and threatens to jeopardise their relationship.

    Australia, 2024, 7 minutes
    English
    Director: Pernell Marsden
    Writers: Pernell Marsden, Gregory Kelly
    Producer: Sophie Booth